Scholz’s star is a red dwarf and alongside it there was a brown dwarf; both of which are failed stars that couldn’t muster enough mass to get any fusion going in its mass. However, as recently as 70,000 years ago the star and its companion buzzed through the Oort Cloud — a region located on the outer zone of our own solar system and a mere 0.8 light years from the Sun.
The Oort Cloud is filled with super-large comets in their trillions with many well over a mile wide. At present, Scholz’s star has moved on to some 20 light years away from us now but its trajectory has been traced and shows that it once came within less than a light year from us.
Our nearest star at present, Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away and Scholz’s star was five times closer than that. A mere 5 trillion miles away – which would have had a profound effect on planet Earth despite the star’s failure to get going.
The path of Scholz’s star was measured by research teams at the University of Rochester, who calculated its relative motion using data from the Southern African Large Telescope and the Magellan Telescopes in Chile. Astronomers had to calculate the trajectory by the tangential velocity and the radial velocity.
The radial velocity is the change in distance from the Sun to the star and the star’s motion across the sky helps to calculate the tangential velocity.
Any star passing through our neighbouring Oort Cloud could easily create gravitational havoc with the orbits of those huge comets there, sending them on trajectories into the inner Solar System.
